Founded in 1727, the Royal Bank of Scotland is one of the world's leading financial services groups. In 2000, it completed the acquisition of NatWest in a £21 billion deal, the largest takeover in British banking history at the time.
The immediate focus after the acquisition was on the integration of two commercial operations. That done, it was felt essential to establish a culture of collaboration, most particularly within the Group's Manufacturing Division.
27,000 Division staff provide essential technology, high volume processing and specialist services to customer-facing Divisions and the rest of the RBS Group. Senior management sought to acknowledge their contribution, salute their achievements and highlight the challenges ahead.
More so, this initiative was to launch new working practices and initiatives as the starting point of a Division-wide cultural change programme dedicated to ensuring everyone understood their roles and goals to move the organisation forward.
Imagination proposed a roadshow programme for the Chief Executive and his team to meet as many employees as possible (without compromising the Division's operational efficiencies). We believed that talking face to face with to staff in an open and direct manner would, in itself, signal change.
The name ‘Manufacturing: From Good to Great' was adopted, reflecting the established cultural change model and setting an aspirational tone for content.
The first roadshow took place over a two-month period in 2003, visiting London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. A total of 6000 staff attended.
Its success was such that a similar tour took place in 2004. This, in part, reviewed the progress of the ‘Good To Great' programme while setting objectives for the year ahead.
The following year marked a significant step change: two tours were undertaken over a four month period, with the entire Division management acting as hosts for each event.
The programme covered 26 cities in the UK and Eire - 91 shows, with audiences varying in size from 75 to 1000 people. As a result, at the conclusion of the 2005 tour, a total of 15,500 staff had attended.
The relationship we have developed with RBS Manufacturing supports consistency in communication and experience; it also promotes cost efficiencies.
Studies evaluating the effectiveness of the events revealed that the informal, personal nature of the presentations was well received. An unprecedented number of attendees rated the roadshows very highly, while over 90% have stated they would be interested in attending similar events in the future.
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